The Outlands Odyssey Part 6: A Battle of Conscience

And so the pack of fiends faced down the heroes, while the blindfolded prisoner pleaded for mercy. Things were tense, but an air of diplomacy was maintained. The fiends wanted to execute their cowering prisoner in peace – for unclear purposes – and wanted the intruders to vacate the room, ideally permanently. M’narr, with a bit of a swagger, started asking about due process. 12-Bar fiddled with the control panel behind the altar, and found the dimmer switch for the lights. The party decided they weren’t prepared to let such evil continue. So it was initiative time. 

The mezzoloth cast cloudkill on pretty much everyone, knowing all his allies were immune to poison. The meazel cowered. M’narr was able to break the mezzoloth’s concentration on the cloud, but took considerable damage from the demon horde and fell unconscious. 12-Bar revived him with a potion, and he and Ragados slowly slashed and smashed their way through their foes. Meazel cowered and looked on, even after M’narr gave him a knife to cut himself free. With the tide starting to turn, the mezzoloth skewered M’narr once more, and asked the meazel to help him in exchange for his own life. The mezzoloth dragged M’narr’s dying body in the direction of the portal. But 12-Bar revived him again, and M’narr was just able to survive the mezzoloth’s trident attacks. The gith fled, and the heroes finally turned the tide, picking off the last remaining fiends. M’narr incapacitated the mezzoloth with a spell, and the four – Meazel included – destroyed him. 

The party collapsed in a heap. Meazel grovelled, thanking them for saving his life. M’narr – a little shaken – had some questions about Meazel’s detention. Meazel had been abducted, he said, only for protecting his property, and he’d go straight home to Hades without causing any trouble, yes sir. Ragados was more interested in the portal. It went to Avernus, one-way. The key was an act of consummate revenge. M’narr used his magic to destroy the teleportation circle. Meazel fled. Ragados quickly cracked the password to the door. They rested, then went in.  They found a vestry room for a priest, with a hidden portal behind a mirror. Heading back to the main hall, the control panel was fiddled with. M’narr was able to fix the broken part of the console, and the rest of the buttons were fiddled with. One of them revealed a doorframe. 12-Bar headed through, discovering a rapidly spinning sanctum chamber. 

*        *        *        *

This session went okay on the whole, it was mostly combat. Things were risky even towards the very end of the fight. I didn’t fudge any die rolls, but there were moments where it really looked like M’narr was going to die. If a couple of monsters had chosen to attack different players, I think he would’ve definitely died. It’s stressful playing and wondering if you’re going to have to make a string of unbelievable choices for monsters in order to let a character survive a fight. The fight was a bit of a war of attrition, but I think it was fun for the players on account of that being a rare occurrence for them. It was the most serious fight since their first ever combat.  

Alex also has guessed another feature about the dungeon: the purpose of the mytholabe. This seems to happen a lot, and I wonder if his brain works the same way as mine because we’re related.  I forgot to offer an Investigation check for the lift holding up the ceiling, and M’narr took some damage as a result, but there were no hard feelings.

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